Quick Hits: Dolphins vs. Patriots

Like many of you, I've spent some time trying to find a scapegoat to pin today's loss on. Some folks have criticized the refereeing, some have complained about the play calling, some about the Patriots and their play calling. I don't think that anyone is necessarily to blame - New England is still a very good (and very dangerous) team, well coached, and they treated today's game with playoffs-level intensity. We matched their intensity for three and a half quarters of play, before finally imploding. I can't fault our effort; our guys played their hearts out. I can't fault the game plan, we put up 28 points. And I can't fault the referees; they weren't the ones that allowed New England to score 48 points.

I fault one person. Me. You see, we are 5-0 when I'm at home on my couch (not my usual recliner), wearing an old and trusted K-State shirt. Well today I'm actually on the road and not at my usual abode, and my wife failed to pack said shirt into my bag today. I actually went out to the store to attempt to find one today, but I'm in El Paso, and all they have are UTEP, Texas Tech, and Texas shirts. (On a side note, was that Tech game lopsided, or what? I'm picking Oklahoma and the Gators for the National Championship. Bradford looked like he was on a mission last night). So, without a shirt, I sat down on the couch in my hotel room and I was greeted with a lack of internet connection, and the Cleveland / Houston game on the tube. Scrambling for a bit, I finally was able to get a good connection downstairs in the lobby, allowing me to tune in just after New England scored for the first time. So the Quick Hits may be a little different than what you saw - as I missed the first 18 minutes or so of the game.

What I liked

This team has come so far from this time last year. It's hard to believe that we've gone from getting shellacked by New England to playing competitive football in a year’s time. We have a coaching staff in place that gets us prepared to play every week. No longer do I cringe at the prospect of playing a team like the Patriots, one of the NFL's best franchises over the past decade, because I know that Tony Sparano and company will have our team ready to play hard. Regardless of how the rest of this season plays out, I'm satisfied with how far we've come. It really is remarkable.

• Production in the Passing Game - Chad Pennington threw for a career high in yards today, and was responsible for 3 TDs through the air (and 1 on the ground). Camarillo, Bess, Ginn, and Martin all had very productive days. All of them looked comfortable, and more importantly, looked like legitimate NFL receivers. On a day where we were playing from behind for a lot of the time, it was good to see our receivers getting open and making plays once they were in the open field.
• Playoff Atmosphere - I really enjoyed the intensity in which the game was played. Seeing the fans packing the stadium, and being loud, was great. (Though I wanted to throw up when I saw these same fans slapping hands and high-fiving Randy Moss after one of his three touchdowns). I saw hard (and clean) hitting from both sides. My favorite play of the day would have to be the Camarillo catch, in which he eluded two tackles and drug four Patriot defenders forward for another three yards. Great play that also helps illustrate the identity of this team - a band of castoff overachievers who refuse to give up.
• Special Teams Tackling - Tyrone Culver, Eric Walden, and Nate Jones all made plays on special teams. I'm glad to see that we learned some lessons against Seattle and Oakland and applied them to this game. The next step is for us to continue this trend next week, and the week after. I still think the special teams unit is a liability, but it was nice to see us making some plays, especially after they were such a let down last week.

What I Didn't Like

Perhaps the most vexing part of this game, at least for me, was how we were outplayed on both sides of the ball. We gave a 100% effort, but we still ended up losing. That's tough. New England was better than us in all phases - their quarterback had more yards (415 yards to 341), and their 1-2 backs ran for more yards (Faulk 53, Ronnie 37, Morris 35, Williams 21). At the wide receiver position, their #1 production exceeded ours (Moss 8 catches for 125 yards, Ginn 5 for 88), the slot matchup went to Welker (Wes had 120 yards, Bess had 87), and Camarillo had a quieter game than Gaffney (Greg had 75 yards, Gaffney 88). When the Patriots needed a turnover to close the game out, they got it. That's a big reason why New England has been so good for so long - they have a team that, aside from being talented, rises to the occasion and makes the plays to win. Miami is a team on the rise. We've got some talent, and a whole lot of heart, but we're not quite there yet.

• Inability to Finish - As I said earlier, it looked to me like we played well enough to win for the first 55 minutes of the game or so, but we didn't close out the game very well. We couldn't get a stop on New England, and had an interception that really turned the game at one of the worst possible moment. Ted Ginn made some mental mistakes, leading to dropped passes, and our starting Inside Linebacker got himself ejected. Going into the fourth quarter I felt like we had a chance to win, provided we could score, get a defensive stop, and then put up a long drive. I was confident because this team has done that before. However, our defense couldn't stop New England, meaning we could never mount a long and sustained drive because we were throwing the ball so much.
• No Defense in the Second Half - In the first half, despite allowing the Patriots to drive up and down the field, we were able to stay in the game, mainly because our defense was managing to come up with turnovers in light of forcing the Patriots to punt. In the second half, New England scored every time that they got the ball. It's hard, if not impossible, to win when your defense is allowing the opposing offense to score every time that they touch the ball. I don't think there is one spot to place blame - we did a fairly good job of blitzing Matt Cassel, he simply made plays to win, something he didn't do in the first matchup. All of our cornerbacks gave up big plays - though it did seem as if Jason Allen was being targeted quite a bit. Goodman got burnt on a key Moss TD, Allen fell down in pursuit of Welker, and Allen had a challenge all day 1-on-1 against Moss. The defensive line generated a fairly good push, forcing Cassel to move around and make plays, which he did with Brady-like consistency. To win this game we needed a stop or turnover in the fourth quarter, and we got neither.
• Injuries - This team has done a good job of avoiding injuries, but we suffered a pair of crucial injuries at inopportune times. In the third quarter, Jake Long was injured on what looked like a high ankle sprain when someone rolled him over. His absence cost us points, as we promptly gave up a sack that took us out of field goal range. Late in the game, after the Pennington interception I believe, Camarillo was injured, on what looked like a pretty bad - think ACL / MCL bad - knee injury. I hope that both of these players aren't injured for the long term, particularly Camarillo, who has been such a bright spot for us this year. We also had other players miss time in the second half - Andre Goodman, David Martin, even looked like Ronnie Brown got shaken up a little bit.

Game Balls of the Week

Does everyone remember when we used to complain about the lack of talent at wide receiver, and how we needed to do one of two things? (Trade for Anquan Boldin / Roy Williams, or draft a WR, preferably Michael Crabtree) Isn't it funny how our supposed weak link - the Wide Receivers in the passing game - helped to keep us in the game against a very good New England team?

• Chad Pennington - We put the game into Pennington's hands throughout the second half, and he responded with a career high in yards. Pennington played well overall, spreading the ball around and putting up some good numbers. Pennington continues to have a quietly great season, it's a shame he doesn't get the hype of Brett Favre, Trent Edwards, or even Matt Cassel.
• Greg Camarillo - As I said earlier, Camarillo had the play of the day for me with a second and third never-say-die run after the catch. I'm so sad that he was injured, he's become one of my favorites and it's such a shame that he may be sidelined for awhile. I hope he can come back and be the same player he was for us before the injury. Great effort from Cammy today; shame how his day ended.
• Davone Bess - Davone Bess looked great out there today, and had no signs of the drops that bothered him a bit last week. Bess looked a lot like Wes Welker out there - catching short slants and patterns and turning them into big gains. It's hard to believe he's a rookie, and even harder to believe he went undrafted. Great find by Jeff Ireland, and I'm glad he's on the team.
• Ted Ginn - Yes, there were a couple of painful dropped passes, but Ginn looked fluid in his routes and shift with the ball in his hands - his catch of a WR screen that he turned into a 7 yard gain was all based on his own effort. He looks great on kickoffs, and it's a matter of time before he breaks off a really long one.

Goats of the Week

It's really hard to pick on or pinpoint one player or group of players on the defensive side of the ball. We had defensive breakdowns across the board, and multiple players made mistakes. I don't feel comfortable indicting the entire unit, so let's look at who else can shoulder some of the blame.

• Paul Pasqueloni - When the entire defense looks like a JV unit, there's a problem. Pasqueloni didn't have the right scheme in place to stop New England. Late in the game we started sending corner blitzes in on Cassel with some success; we failed to dial those up sooner. For some reason, we also had Jason Allen 1-on-1 against Moss for much of the game, a decision I didn't really understand. The defense looked bad in the first half, but atrocious in the second half. I was disappointed we didn't make any halftime adjustments. Really, a flat effort overall, probably our worst defensive performance since Arizona. Hopefully Pasqueloni can look at the game film and find some adjustments to make - we can't give up 30 first downs and 530 yards and hope to win against any team in the NFL.
• Poor Winner Patriots - Anyone that pulls hair in a fight is a girl, in my opinion. I thought Matt Light showed no class in going after Channing Crowder. Crowder shouldn't have pushed him (and shouldn’t have been ejected), but Light should not have taken to punching him (after grabbing his hair, as well). Bill Belicheck is a consummate douche bag; his decision to punch in a meaningless garbage touchdown in the closing seconds defines the word "classless." To some extent, I get scoring points like that in college, where the BCS standings force voters to look at victory in terms of point spread. However, this is the NFL. Just take the knee and enjoy your victory.
• Samson Satele - Satele got whipped pretty much nonstop by Vince Wilfork today, a player that he had previously had success against. In the first half, we probably should have had a few drives stopped, as Wilfork disrupted the running game pretty much completely. Satele does not look like the same player we had last year, I don't know if that's because of what he is being asked to do or what. He's one of my personal favorites, but I've been disappointed in his play through stretches of this season, and I think he is rapidly playing his way out of town.
• Poor Refereeing – I don’t want to spend a lot of time complaining about the calls that didn’t go our way today, but I will say that I thought there were a couple of very questionable calls that were made. Some folks are alleging a conspiracy, and while I don’t believe that, I can see the point of view. In some ways, it reminded me of watching a Chicago Bulls game back in the day with Jordan. You could always expect the questionable calls to go his way. That’s kind of what we saw today. That said the referees weren’t the ones who gave up 48 points and 500+ yards. Still, let’s hope this is the end of the poor refereeing of Miami games.

Overall Thoughts

On a day where the Jets were ending the Titan's bid at perfection, and the Bills putting a beating on Kansas City, this loss was especially tough. For the most part though, I liked what I saw out there today, though I was disappointed in how we finished the game. Despite the offense playing some of their best football of the year, it simply wasn't enough, in light of New England's aerial fireworks. This is a team that is on the cusp - they have the foundation and potential to be a very good team, but days like today show they aren't quite there yet. I do look forward to next year, and the year after, as I believe the seeds have been planted for this team to be competitive for a long, long time. With our schedule the way it is, we do have an opportunity to make some noise this year, there's no doubt of that. However, with today's loss we have put ourselves more on the outside looking in. Even if we make it into the playoffs, it should be clear to everyone that this team is still a little ways off, and they aren't quite ready to be a contender. This fact should come as no surprise; we've struggled with lesser teams that our rivals have blown out.

We get a chance to keep pace in the division next week against St. Louis. I like our chances in that game, with the Rams starting our old QB, Trent Green. I wish Trent would have retired after last year - I want us to win but I don't want to see Green get injured. St. Louis is a team that's in a little bit of disarray, besides missing their starting QB they've also got an interim head coach.

 

I was watching the game via a stream on my laptop, so I didn't see Porter melting down. I don't see it as a bad thing the way you describe it; he's a competitor and didn't want to leave the game. You se the same thing happen when a pitcher is asked to leave the game of baseball.

Well, we couldn't really run the ball much because we were playing from behind. I missed the first quarter, so I don't know if we tried to run much there or not. I thought that our second and third quarter drives were both good, and we ran when we could. But after the Patriots got up two scores that was pretty much impossible.

 

I thought it was very telling for this team to be as competitive as they were yesterday. New England had 10 games to prepare for a division rival that embarrassed them the last time out. And we still hung with them for most of the game. We get one defensive stop in the second half - just one! - and we take the lead, possibly changing how everything went down.

I was extremely proud of the team I saw on the field yesterday - we went back and forth with one of the top franchises in the NFL and held our own. We've already made our way back to respectability, we just need a little more time to take that next step towards becoming a real force.